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Thierry Mugler A*Men Pure Havane EDT Review

Please say in “Cool Hand Luke” style…What we have here is a flanker that is better than the original. I like A*Men but let’s be honest, it isn’t the easiest fragrance to wear. It’s loud and a little odd, in a good way, but not something I’d like to wear daily. Pure Havane has Mugler sillage, not original A*Men sillage, making it much easier to wear.

The opening of Pure Havane is crisp, ozone green tobacco leaves and sticky honey around amber resin. It’s “herbal” but sweet. It takes me back to Southern tobacco drying facilities that I remember “huffing” in my youth. They were always in the “rough” neighborhoods, huge sheds with gigantic industrial fans that blew the smell of curing tobacco out on the steaming hot 1930’s Works Progress Administration paved streets (never repaved since then, you know the look if they were in your neighborhood ). The crisp herbalness fades fairly quickly and then I get this stewed prunes in cognac. There’s some patchouli there, but not much, especially in comparison to the original A*Men. It’s a patchouli-chocolate, one of my favorite fragrance fusions/accords. I think get tonka bean complexity, like a bourbon drenched-almond powder-black vanilla bean pod. It “smolders” at this stage. The dry-down is this sweet, raw vanilla with a bitter “ashtray” accord. Not a wet, damp, dirty ashtray, but dry and powdery cigar ashes. It sounds nasty but I think it smells so good. Eventually, Pure Havane becomes raw vanilla and amber, sweet but not as sweet as scents like L’Artisan Havana Vanille.

I can’t compare Pure Havane to all of the other A*Men flankers. I’m guess that if you have any of those, there’s no real *need* to purchase Pure Havane, unless you are like me, and love tobacco fragrances. Pure Tobacco is an easy to wear tobacco oriental (I’d argue gourmand). It isn’t super “interesting” but it is so good and something that I’d wear frequently. I can’t stop sniffing my wrist when wearing it.

Despite being sweet with notes of honey, chocolate, and vanilla, Pure Havane is certainly masculine. This is how it differs from other tobacco vanillas on the market which are sweet and more feminine and “round”. The herbal, green tobacco and bitterness make Pure Havane more masculine. This is the top, it fades and most of the wear is a vanilla tobacco. I know that myself and many other females can wear this fragrance easily. Just get it if you like tobacco fragrances.

With all of these notes and the excellent sillage, I think of Pure Havane as a little Serge Lutens’ nephew. I mean come on, there’s honey, powdered cocoa, patchouli, and tobacco. This is a “Serge Lutens” for the mass market.

The 3.4 oz EDT of this limited edition A*Men retails for $80, a deal really. It’s available at most department stores likes Nordstrom.

Victoria’s Final EauPINION – One of the best fumes (nevermind flankers) that I have sniffed in many moons. Seriously, if you consider yourself a tobacco fragrance fanataic, then buy this up while you can. Sniff later. You’ll thank me. Now excuse me, I need to go out and buy a full bottle ASAP.

24 thoughts on “Thierry Mugler A*Men Pure Havane EDT Review”

Victoria, I love the review, and I love the fragrance… and I second your advice: Go buy it! 😉

Really though, this is one that I loved immediately—it’s got that instant appeal, and I think it’s very easy to wear. However, my only complaint is that after the first half hour or so, it’s so quit that I almost can’t smell it at all.

The trouble comes when I look at my decant (10mL, almost half gone)… do I go buy the bottle, or do I save the precious cabinet space for something else?!dee recently posted..Slow perfume

That’s the thing! These have such a dedicated following, and it’s limited—am I going to be annoyed with myself if I DON’T buy it??? Grrrr. Tough decision!dee recently posted..Wednesday Mail- Jacomo Silences PDT

DAMN this sounds so good. I’m glad I’ve got a couple of samples of it on the way. I have a feeling I’ll want a FB, but need to test it first, I’m not a huge Thierry Mugler fan so I need to be sure.Carrie Meredith recently posted..Not Afraid of the Pink- Guerlain Iris Ganache

It is really good, but I wonder if you will like it. It is very Mugler. You see, I like Mugler perfumes, all of them (excluding some of the flankers that I have never sniffed). I just know I like this one and it’s good for the money.

Well, I figured it’s worth trying since tobacco is one of my favorite notes in perfume, and if I don’t like it, I know where to send those samples. 😉Carrie Meredith recently posted..Not Afraid of the Pink- Guerlain Iris Ganache